Review – Charles Stross, Glasshouse

Great book. I enjoy Stross best when he’s mixing social commentary with his story, and Glasshouse is a good example. Set in what can only be described as Big Brother of the future, the novel centres on a former solider who’s escaping the world into an intended rehab. But… he’s being pursued by unseen enemies who may have followed him in.

Not too bad a premise it seems. It turns out that the glasshouse is question is a experiment in trying to understand social dynamics in a ‘dark age’ of approximately 1950-2050AD, and there we have a series of what are at times extremely funny perceptions of how we currently organise ourselves. In particular, the commentary of TV voyeurism is laid out in the form of a game whereby participants compete to be most authentically C20th. Which leaves us looking at our own behaviour… askance.

I do have one reservation though. Are there any Stross books where he uses something other than first person?

Glasshouse was probably one of my favourite Stross novels. Lots of his cool speculative stuff combined with a fast-paced story and as you say the humour derived from looking at today’s society from a distant future perspective.